Blogs from Oklahoma, United States, North America

We have made it to Quartzsite, AZ, where we’ll be staying for a month before moving on to Yuma for the Winter. For now, though, we’ll write about our stop in Oklahoma City, where we spent a couple of years courtesy of Boeing, 43 years ago. This is when we met Rinda and Richard, the boys learned to ride their new bicycles, and Natalie was the Popcorn Lady every Friday morning at their school. It was truly a pleasant experience to drive by the old neighborhood, wonder where all the neighbors have scattered and see how the neighborhood has aged. Some was rebuilt after a tornado took out blocks of homes that were near us before, but you really couldn’t tell the old from the rebuilt. And Oklahoma is one of the prime candidates for us ... read more

Now, on our past visits to America, we've kept a running tally of wildlife seen along the way, just the live stuff of course. But we are very disappointed on this trip as we've only seen 2 deer in a gully on the side of the road on day 4. Normally by now the count is into a dozen plus at worst. The roadkill count is massive but as we are heading into Colorado in the next couple days, the count will increase. Also, the prices on pretty much everything has increased since 2018. Fuel is around $3.99 to $4.20 a gallon for 91 grade. We fueled with 93 yesterday, but that's the best we've seen so far. All food has increased as has alcohol. Motel accommodation is also probably 20% up on 2018. Day 13 ... read more

Before I start on today’s events, I want to do some catchup comments about the previous two days. As you are probably aware, the US is famous for the plethora of billboards. A couple I noticed were in Missouri. The first was a very irritating advert about Uranus. What’s so unusual about that you ask? Well, there’s a big candy store called Uranus and the billboards (so many of them!) asked “ Can’t find Uranus?” or “The Best Fudge is in Uranus”. I certainly didn’t feel the urge to visit that store and was happy to see the last of the billboards. It seems Missouri has a very modern attitude towards drugs. The first ad I saw was “Mushrooms - for the psychedelic curious” and the next one was for “Rock Joints” (not marijuana - not ... read more

20th March - Oklahoma #heygo http://www.heygo.com The Chickasaw Warrior A replica of the main statue at Chickasaw Nation Headquarters, “The Warrior” stands proud over the Cultural Center grounds. “The Warrior” goes back to a time before European contact in 1540. It is said that tashka' Chikasha (translated to mean “Chickasaw warriors”) were fierce in battle, and “The Warrior” powerfully represents people’s “unconquered and unconquerable” spirit. The Centennial Land Run Monument commemorates the opening of the Unassigned Land in Oklahoma Territory with the Land Run of 1889. The frenzied energy and emotion from one instant during the run is captured in bronze by artist Paul Moore. It is one of the world’s largest bronze sculptures featuring 45 heroic figures of land run participants, frozen in motion as they race to claim new homesteads. ... read more

FORT GIBSON The 1830s would have been amusing times to have gone forth in America. In 1821 the Mexicans finally kicked the Spaniards out of their country and began to move forward with plans to settle Texas. In 1824 America responded to Mexican encroachment in their own land, with measures to protect the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase lands with an army post on the Arkansas River. The river was the internationally accepted southern boundary of the purchase lands. At the time it was the furthest outpost of the realm. Everyone who was ever posted to Fort Gibson or even visited there got infected with malaria and many of them died. Back then Mexico did not know us very well and did not understand our insatiable penchant for greed. They could not inhabit Texas quickly enough with ... read more